The Nebraska men's cross country team finished 9th out of 29 teams Friday.

Photo by Nate Olsen/Nebraska Communications

Huskers Finish Season at NCAA Regional

By NU Athletic Communications

| 11/15/2013

The Nebraska cross country team competed in its last meet of the season at the NCAA Midwest Regional Friday afternoon in Ames, Iowa. The men's team finished 9th out of 29 teams, while the women's team finished 20th out of 30 teams’ total.

Head Coach David Harris was very impressed with the overall performance by both the men’s team and the women’s team today. On the men’s side Harris was extremely proud of how the young team fought today, improving their Midwest Regional placing by 18 spots from last year. (NU placed 27th out of 30 teams in 2012).

“The men had a very-very good performance today, finishing ninth in a very talented field. We had a very solid effort from our top runner down through our sixth runner.” Harris said, “I am very pleased with how this team finished the season on a high note, we really needed this.”

Leading the way for the men’s team was senior co-captain Jarren Heng, who ran a blistering 31:13.7 placing him 35th overall. A native of Norfolk, Neb., Heng was expected to be one of the Huskers top runners in 2013, but has battled through some minor injuries throughout the season. With that being said, Heng was very happy with his last race as a Husker cross country runner.

“Today’s race was great, the whole team got together the day before and we set ourselves some goals for what we wanted to do.” Heng said, “We wanted to place in the top-10 and gain some respect back for the Nebraska cross country program, we all went out and ran with guts… and we succeeded.”

Harris was also impressed with how the women’s team competed today, noting that even though the women’s team did not meet their goal of placing in the top-15, they still had a great race.

“I am happy with our women’s results today as well, we beat some teams that we have not beat before so it was really good to see that.” Harris said, “While we didn’t get ranked in the top-15, it was still a really good way to end the season.”

Freshman Anna Peer and senior Isabel Andrade led the way for the NU women’s team at the Midwest Regional. Peer finished 69th with a time of 21:50.0, followed by Andrade who placed 70th with a time of 21:51.0.

With the results of the races, both the men's team and the women's team will not be competing at the NCAA Championships next Saturday. With only four seniors on this year’s Nebraska cross country team (two men’s, two women’s) the future is bright for the Huskers.